In a no holds barred apology to fellow South Africans, President Cyril Ramaphosa seeks to atone for “our” failures in recent times, writes our award-winning columnist Bhekisisa Mncube.

As head of state and president of the governing party, it is with a heavy heart that I, Cyril Ramaphosa, pen this letter to my fellow South Africans to say I am genuinely sorry.

My letter seeks to atone for our failures in recent times without making any grand promises except to say it can’t be business as usual. We yearn for the return of the Age of Hope and the end of the winter of despair.

I am sorry for the unparalleled scale of governance failure, maladministration and corruption.

Like the rest of you, I read the news media with increasing apprehension as scandal after scandal of corruption, fraud and money laundering involves leaders of the ANC. Yet few are arrested, and even fewer convicted. The level of impunity in our country offends our collective sense of justice.

Today the majority of our people are without jobs, which robs them of their dignity. I must also admit that the present precarious livelihoods of most of our people are the result of our poor economic policy choices, an incapable state and rampant corruption. Not to mention the spectacle of poor execution of some of the excellent existing policies, the civil servants at a senior level without adequate qualifications and the sheer lethargy of the public service.

I regret some of the choices I made in choosing the country’s national executive and that it has taken me so long to review and reshuffle my cabinet.

In future, since the ANC gene pool is contaminated, I shall look for cabinet members beyond the party.

As a result of our sheer incompetence as the governing party, many municipalities are dysfunctional and deliver no services, yet every year billions of rands are misspent. I apologise to people whose streets are full of potholes, who live without clean water, and those who live in unhygienic conditions as raw sewage runs into their streets.

Our economy remains stagnant, and crime has reached unprecedented levels. Our last line of defence against criminality, the police service, is rudderless.

The most glaring failure of late sadly manifested in the loss of lives and destruction of property, all under my watch. The 337 lost lives weigh heavily on my conscience.

South Africa has no place for the political gangsters masquerading as our leaders who would cause an “insurrection” in the vain hope of acquiring political power by slaughtering the innocents.

I am embarrassed to say I watched on the telly like the rest of you as some among us pillaged private property, yet my government did nothing.

I am full of remorse as it has emerged that some of the instigators of the recent Zuma unrest, or “failed insurrection”, if you will, are leaders of the ANC.

Equally distressing is that there are “elements of truth” in the claim that some members and leaders of the ANC actively participated in the shop looting frenzy. Some ANC leaders are believed to have recruited others to set warehouses, factories, public schools and shopping malls ablaze, all in the name of uBaba. All these people, the looter, financier and recruiter, who sought the destruction of our country, are as ANC as you and me. In other words, the members of the political party I lead are both the corrupter and the harlot who acted together to destroy “our” people’s lives and livelihoods.

I regret the disparaging comments made by some ANC members/leaders calling for “one Indian, one bullet” following the death of our people in and around Phoenix.

I take responsibility for the loss of lives — all the lives in the recent #Free-Zuma protests.

I apologise that Carl Niehaus remains a member of the ANC and is allowed to make inflammatory political statements against our white compatriots — the proverbial “white monopoly capital” gimmick. I regret that I didn’t early on put the brakes on the “Radical Economic Transformation” (RET) forces that continue to divide our society.

I understand if some of you are gatvol with my party and the government. I am guilty both by act and omission in my duty of care to you.

The government I lead has lost in both the swings and roundabouts.

I am a disappointment to my son Andile, CR17 supporters, and so many people who trust me — the “Thuma Mina Brigade”, as it were.

I confess that the ANC is no longer just the accused number one on the subject of corruption, but the entire movement has morphed into a “criminal enterprise”.

From the desk of the President

Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa

This Letter to Mahlamba Ndlopfu is written by Bhekisisa Mncube, a former senior Witness political journalist, the 2020 regional winner in the Opinion category of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award, and author of The Love Diary of a Zulu Boy, a memoir.

This opinion piece was first published in the Witness/News24.